Banda ‘xenophobic’ threat: Teachers given Friday for decision on return to post

Pupils at Banda Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region will have to wait for another week before teachers can return to class for teaching and learning activities.

This is because after stakeholders met on Monday to deliberate on the issue and how teachers and other government workers will return after the xenophobic threat, the Ghana Education Service (GES) told the teachers to wait until Friday, March 24.

GES joined the security services and the Banda traditional authorities on Monday to decide on the appropriate time for teachers and other workers who fled the town to return.

Officials of the Ministry of Education and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) took part in the meeting, which took place in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Government workers including teachers deserted their posts after a group calling itself Concern Members of Banda Ahenkro issued public notices, threatening mayhem on foreigners in the town, akin to the largely condemned recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa on persons considered strangers in the area.

Speaking on Onua FM’s Ghana Dadwene on Monday hosted by Nana Yaw Opare, the Headmaster of Banda Ahenkro Roman Catholic Junior High School, Jones Agyeman, said “we met with our bosses. The chief and the MPs were all there and the chiefs urged us to return and they will protect us”.

He added that after the meeting, they [teachers] “met their Regional Director of Education to also listen to our side of the issue and the director told us they will give us an update on Friday”.

“The Regional Education Director had to go to Kintampo so he told us to wait for until Friday,” he added.